Fishbowl discussion: Asylum, flight, migration

Saturday, 04:30 PM - 06:30 PM, Auditorium

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated the number of refugees in 2017 at 65.8 million, including internally displaced persons, refugees, asylum seekers and returnees. People migrate for various reasons, they are looking for freedom, protection, work - a better life for themselves or their relatives and friends. Their motives are personal or subject to structural constraints in their home countries. Thus flight and expulsion are directly related to human rights violations or a lack of standards in human rights protection in the member states of the United Nations, as they are not able or willing to guarantee or respect the human rights of their populations.
This Fishbowl discussion aims to look at current migration issues from a human rights perspective by inviting people who are involved in the issue through their jobs or volunteering.

Speaker

Natascha Anahita Nassir-Shahnian (Host)

Natascha Anahita Nassir-Shahnian is a political scientist and works as a consultant for diversity development at the Cultural Education Project Fund of Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH. She considers herself a decolonial feminist and has several years of experience in the self-organization of People of Color in Berlin as well as in political education with a focus on power criticism (lobbyism, racism, sexism, intersectionality) and empowerment.

Rebecca

Rebecca is a human rights activist that has been at the frontline of the so-called European refugee crisis since 2015. She was involved in setting up emergency response infrastructures along the Balkan route and coordinating the sea and shore rescue on the Greek islands. In 2018 she joined the civil sea rescue organization Sea-Watch that is vehemently committed to rescuing people in the central Mediterranean. In the presence of the rise of the right, they co-initiated the movement Seebrücke - Creating Safe Harbours that brought thousands of people to the streets over the summer.

Veronika Patočková

Veronika studied Sociology and Translation Sciences at Charles University in Prague. In 2012 she and Hamze Bytyçi founded the association RomaTrial e.V. Since then she works as a fundraiser and project manager. She has coordinated many youth and art projects.
Since 2017 she is the leading producer of “AKE DIKHEA? Festival of Romani Film” in Berlin. In 2017, she was working as Scientific Associate in the field of commemoration of murdered Sinti and Roma at the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. In 2018, she was the leading producer of the First Roma Biennale“COME OUT NOW!”.

Georg Genoux

Georg is co-founder of Teatr.doc, Democracy.doc and the Joseph Beuys Theater in Moscow. He has staged and curated over 90 theatre and film projects, many of which have been invited to international festivals. He is one of the two directors of the Ukrainian film School #3 for which he received the Grand Prix of the "Generation 14+" competition at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale). Together with Natalia Vorozhbyt, he directed the Theatre of Displaced People in Kiev/Ukraine for three years, which works with internally displaced persons.